The conflict began in November 2020 when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a military operation in the region to overthrow the rebel Tigray authorities from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
Article written by
Posted
Update
Reading time : 1 min.
A new cry of alarm. The WHO alerted, Wednesday, August 17, on the humanitarian situation in Tigray, “the worst disaster in the world”, accusing the leaders of developed countries of having neglected the crisis in this region of northern Ethiopia, the scene of a deadly conflict between government and rebels. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has denounced a “unimaginable cruelty” inflicted on the six million people living in the region.
“The only solution is peace”underlined the head of the organization, calling on the Ethiopian government to resolve the conflict “in a peaceful manner”. Since the beginning of the conflict in November 2020, the region has suffered food shortages and access to essential services such as electricity, telecommunications and banks has been drastically reduced.
“Result: the population of Tigray is facing multiple epidemics of malaria, anthrax, cholera, diarrhea and others” diseases, lamented the head of the WHO, himself from Tigray, at a press conference in Geneva. The fighting has calmed down since a humanitarian truce was declared at the end of March, allowing the resumption of international aid convoys to Tigray. But according to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesusfoodstuffs and medicines arrive in the region only in dribs and drabs.
The WHO director-general also suggested that discrimination and racism could explain the fact that the situation in Tigray drags on in indifference. “Maybe the reason is the skin color of the Tigrayans. In the last few months I have not heard a head of state anywhere mention the situation in Tigray, especially in the developed world. Why? I think that we know it”. He also added that the drought, which is affecting the Horn of Africa, was aggravating the crisis.